Friday, July 15, 2005

I BELIEVE WE HAVE REACHED THE END OF TIMES

Last night, Catherine alerted me to the fact that Pauline Hanson was the subject of This Is Your Life. Thank you, Catherine. IT WAS GHASTLY. Possibly the most ghastly and astounding thing I have seen on television in the guise of polite wholesome fun. In attendance; Pauline Hanson, Mike Munro, Alan Jones, a bunch of uckin moles. With the repeated suggestion that a) this was an honour, and b) it was deserved. And everyone quite willing to laugh off deeply discriminatory and idiotic social ideas and instead talk about courage and conviction. What larks! It was like being locked in a room where there were menacing warning signs on all the walls with "Deploy critical faculties on pain of death" on them, but where no-one much minded the restriction anyway. And through all the screaming and the WHY, and the WHERE AM I, WHAT'S HAPPENING, WHAT DAY IS IT, WHAT LANGAUGE AM I SPEAKING, this persistent dreadful thought kept pushing its way into my mind:

THIS IS WHAT YOUR COUNTRY LOOKS LIKE, IS.

Seriously, is the end of civilisation nigh, or something? I would just like to know. Because last night, aside from the genius car ad with its "there's room for everyone" bit, the only bright spot, or, the only thing that remotely approached a decent spot, was KYLE SANDILANDS. Yes, exactly. Anyway, after Jackie O was all like, "we saw you at the airport and didn't make eye contact with you. WE LOVE YOU, PAULINE", Kyle became a person I would allow to continue breathing. He said this:

"she said, 'I don't know why the whole country doesn't like me', and we said, 'Because you didn't like Asians and Aboriginals. But now you've changed your mind, you've danced your heart out, the world loves you'."

Yes, that's it. That's the bright spot. Believe me, in context, this was actually a good thing to say. Because there was no limit to the gloss they were prepared to apply, eg. "After coming top of your class in Year 9, you dropped out of school at the age of 15...At 24, after years working as a waitress, you got a promotion. And became a barmaid at the Penthouse Club..."

The whole thing was just SO ABSURD. And yet people were prepared to associate themselves with it. AND SMILE.